By Darren Grayer.
Music in the City returns to Southampton on Saturday 12th September. Established in 2008, the event is a music festival celebrating local talent that aims to bring people together by making live music accessible to all, while at the same time strengthening community connections, amplifying under-represented voices, developing creative skills and supporting social cohesion.
Embedded within that is a long-term vision to grow from a weekend festival to a year-round community project supporting local culture, and those involved are already starting to make that happen.
When Music in the City started in 2008 it was backed and coordinated by Southampton City Council but over the years it gradually moved away from being a council led event, with various individuals taking on key roles and starting to involve local businesses.
The latest person to take on the main organising responsibilities is Chris Orr. I caught up with him over a drink to learn a bit more about what it all means to have an event like this happening in Southampton.
“I took over running Music in the City in 2024, so I’ve done it twice now. The first year was very much a learning curve, but we did pretty well, getting it out there and involved a lot of people. I got to introduce myself to lots of venues and artists. I really had no idea how deep the Southampton music scene was,” Chris admitted.
“The following year I had a much better understanding of the event and was keen to build on the success of 2024, but was also starting to think about how this event could go forward, questioning its reason for existence.”
DG- Do you have a team around you to help?
“Yes, I do a large amount of the work, but I’ve put together a committee of around ten, mostly local musicians and friends. I’ve met some fantastic people on this relatively short journey, and then we have an extended network of volunteers who help deal with the venues on the actual weekend.”
DG- Have you tried to change anything or perhaps put your own personal touch on the event?
“Yes, I was just keen to make sure it had a purpose. Live music is great for music fans, but I wanted it to have a reason to exist. There are lots of people who want to be involved, which is great, so it was then defining what it was ultimately all about, and I think that’s come down to supporting and enabling live music at grassroots level, giving people the opportunity to play at all different levels within the whole scene of the city. We’ve got no hierarchy, no headliners, it’s just everybody gets to play, and their part of the day is rightly so their most important part of the day.
“There are going to be 420 performances this year, in one day, across 62 different venues, and there really is something for everybody in this, I hope its going to be a very special day for a lot of people.”
DG- Do you also think it’s a great way to show what the city has to offer?
“From the artists’ point of view, they were the first people I wanted it to have a sense of purpose for and to make sure it worked for them, but then from a consumer’s point of view, you and I love going to see live music, which is great, but we’ve taken it to a new level, so people can go out with over 60 venues to choose from, with hundreds of performances in 47 different genres of music. You can choose what you would like to see, or you can attend completely unplanned and perhaps discover something new!”
DG- I’m always so impressed when I speak to people about the amount of collaborative work that goes on in the local music scene.
“Relationships are getting built within the whole thing now and it’s turning into even more of a community project, on lots of different levels. The music and wider communities are kind of taking ownership of the project from their own point of view. There is a fantastic grassroots scene that involves a variety of great venues in Southampton, including Heartbreakers, The Joiners, The Loft, Papillion and the 1865 that we’ve now partnered with. I’ve met all the guys from those places, as well as lots of the pubs that put on live music as well, and they’re appreciating what we’re doing and we’re involving all of them to help build upon the already great scene that exists.”
I then asked Chris about his love of music, and if it’s been a longstanding thing.
“Yes, I’m not a musician but I’ve always loved going to gigs. My sister somehow got me into The Gaumont in 1979 to see The Jam. It was my first gig and the sight of Weller, Foxton and Buckler was jaw dropping, and I’ve been gigging ever since”
DG- How do you see things progressing for MITC?
“Ultimately, we need funding. There is an increasing amount of costs in putting on an event safely and securely and to a good standard, it takes a serious amount of planning and hard work to deliver it. We do have good support from the local Business Improvement District; Go! Southampton – they are our main sponsor this year. They’ve acknowledged that we are generating footfall and revenue for local businesses, hospitality in particular, and we are really pleased to be able to help and support them though this event. The demand for the event is clear, from all involved, but it needs much greater investment to be able to continue.”
DG- would you aim to produce something along the lines of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival?
“Definitely, there is a scene here that is worthy of taking forward, there is a great creative community here. The city is quite spread out, and the nature of Southampton has always had different communities and parts of it. When you put them all together it is a big, great scene.”
DG- How does it come together in terms of people who might want to play at the festival?
“One of my initial concerns when I took it on was – do people want to play? But it quickly became clear they did with good numbers registering their interest. So we built a website that artists could register on, and we could then manage everything much better and communicate with them efficiently. We’ve now got more than 900 acts on our database which is an amazing number. This year we had 400 acts register to play in just 4 weeks of opening up the registration on our website, and we’ve been getting enquires form further afield as well which is really encouraging – we’ve got bands coming to perform from Salisbury, Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Winchester locally and from further still we’ve got acts form Brighton, London and Manchester!
“We said in the previous two years that we would make it our mission to find a space for everyone who wanted to play, to genuinely support grassroots this felt right. But unfortunately, we’ve fallen slightly short of being able to achieve this this year, a victim of our success you could say. We are completely maxed out on our resources and equipment, and people to run the event and places to perform. Its looking like about 5% won’t get to play, but that said we are still working on trying to tuck them in somewhere on the line up.”
DG- How do you fare in terms of voluntary help on the day?
“That’s another lovely part of it. Last year we had 105 volunteers, an amazing number, I think! And we had some lovely feedback, with people saying how much they enjoyed the whole experience and really felt part of it.”
Chris went on to explain how being involved in Music in the City has begun to open other doors that are starting to benefit the artists.
“A great example being us now providing live music for the Southampton Marathon that we’ve called ‘Music in the Marathon’ – this happened for the second year running in May, with over 400 local musicians performing at 17 different stages around the courses. These were all paid performances. I’m very proud to say that 1 in 3 of the acts that performed at Music in the City 2025 have subsequently had a paid gig from us in the following year. Gigs have also happened at the Christmas market and recently at Wickham festival.”
Oddly enough, our conversation is halted by, yes, you’ve guessed it, live music being played in the bar a few yards away from us!
Music in the City promises to be a very enjoyable day for all involved, and a chance for people of all backgrounds to spend a day in Southampton taking in the music and local facilities, totally at their own leisure. I am grateful to Chris Orr for his time and the chance to learn more about the background to this important event in the city’s calendar.
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